The present invention relates to paper cups or similar disposable containers and more particularly to a cup construction incorporating a pop-out or tear-off portion containing premium or prize-winning indicia which renders the container unfit for reuse.
It has long been a problem in the disposable container art that the unscrupulous will recover cups and containers that have been previously used to dispense a product and refill them to pass them off as an original in some deceptive manner. For example, the problem is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,186,940 to R. L. Sullivan in connection with lubricating oil cans bearing well known brand indicia that may be recovered and refilled with an inferior product and passed off to the public as the brand product. The solution of the problem as proposed in this patent is the formation of a score line preferably on the inside of the body wall of the container to facilitate the punching out of a portion of the wall by a consumer to render the container unusable and thus prevent its reuse. The consumer is induced to punch out the wall portion by the vendor of the product in some manner offering a premium in connection with the punchedout portion.
While scoring or weakening the sidewall of a can may be easily accomplished without significant danger of leakage of the contained product during storage or use, such a practice has been avoided in the paper cup or other thin-walled container art as evidenced by the disclosures, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,620 to R. E. Ludder and U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,085 to W. T. Doty, wherein use-indicating tear-off tabs are provided in the overlapping seam portion of conventional beverage cups of paper or plastic rather than in the wall itself. Both of the disclosed inventions in these patents emphasize the problem of leakage when perforating the walls of such cups and the latter purports to improve upon the former in this regard.
Another approach to the use of a tear-off portion on paper cups is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,361 to R. H. Day, et al., which discloses a double wall construction with a weakened line in a portion of the outer wall that can be detached from the cup for premium purposes.
The present invention is directed to solving the problem of the unscrupulous reuse of disposable cups and cartons for beverages and other fluids, in an improved and simplified manner as compared to those taught in the prior art.